SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

The Gov­ern­ment has al­lo­cat­ed $50 Mil­lion for the pur­chase of lap­tops for needy stu­dents in the 2020/2021 Bud­get.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion of the bud­get, called “Re­set­ting the Econ­o­my for Growth and In­no­va­tion” in the Par­lia­ment to­day.

“At the start of the new school term, we rec­og­nized that thou­sands of stu­dents did not have ac­cess to the in­ter­net or to com­put­ers to be able to take part in the new sys­tem of teach­ing,” Im­bert said.

He said the Gov­ern­ment tried to aid by re­mov­ing tax­es from com­put­ers, lap­tops and tablets sev­er­al weeks ago.

He said the Gov­ern­ment has al­so not­ed the do­na­tions of the pri­vate sec­tor.

“To aid in this ef­fort, we have pro­vid­ed the sum of $50 Mil­lion in this year’s bud­getary al­lo­ca­tion for com­put­ers for needy stu­dents,” he said.

He said the ac­qui­si­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion will be a joint ef­fort be­tween three Gov­ern­ment Min­istries.

“The Min­istries of Ed­u­ca­tion will iden­ti­fy the stu­dents,” he ex­plained. “The Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion to make sure we get val­ue for mon­ey and pro­vide prop­er spec­i­fi­ca­tions, and the Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment to en­sure that those who re­al­ly need these com­put­ers, get them.”